The first industry conference for 3D Printing was held this week in New York. I had seen some news about this technology earlier this year, mostly about how people were using it to make guns when the story came out about a University of Texas student who had shared his specs online and others were using it to print guns as well http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/3d-printed-guns/. I looked further into it after seeing what the conference line up was and learned some interesting things. 3D printing was developed in 1984 by Charles Hull. It is based on his invention of stereolithography, a printing process that enables a 3D object to be created from digital data. It creates a model from a picture and allows users to test a design. 3D printers are similar to inkjet printers, but, instead of ink, 3D printers deposit the desired material in successive layers to create a physical object from a digital file. Initially this technique was used mostly in scientific and medical research. Now industry members include architects, artists, engineers, developers, designers, researchers, culinary professionals, or any others interested in being inventive with the technology. The evolution of the technology has grown more rapidly since it became a part of the open-source community in 2005, after its patent expired. This community and the growing affordability of the hardware have enabled the rapid expansion and growth of ideas to use it in combination with other technologies and software. RepRap http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page is one of the largest developers involved in the open-source projects. If you are interested in learning more about this creative technology there will be another conference this summer in Chicago http://www.mediabistro.com/inside3dprinting/. Other sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing
http://gizmodo.com/5995271/scientists-have-3d+printed-mini-human-livers-for-the-first-time-ever
http://startupjuncture.com/2013/04/24/3d-print-champion-shapeways-raises-monster-funding/
Hackingyogi 